Tovino Thomas (born 21 January 1989) is an Indian actor and film producer who prominently works in Malayalam films.[2] He made his debut in 2012 with the film Prabhuvinte Makkal. His breakthrough roles were in the films ABCD (2013), 7th Day (2014) and Ennu Ninte Moideen (2015). He starred as the titular character in the Netflix superhero film Minnal Murali (2021).[3]

Tovino Thomas
Tovino in 2018
Born	(1989-01-21) 21 January 1989 (age 33)[1] Irinjalakuda, Kerala, India
Alma mater	Tamil Nadu College of Engineering, Coimbatore
Occupation	Actor model film producer
Years active	2012 – present
Spouse	Lidiya Tovino ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	2
Website	www.tovinothomas.com

He won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ennu Ninte Moideen (2015). He also won the Kerala Film Critics Association Award and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for his performance in Mayanadi (2017). For his constantly evolving looks and style, Tovino is ranked among the most desirable men[4] from Kerala published by the Kochi Times, which is a subsidiary of The Times of India. In 2018, Tovino ranked first in the list of most desirable men published by Kochi Times.[5]

Early life

Tovino was born into a Syro-Malabar Catholic family in Irinjalakuda, Thrissur as the younger son of Adv. Ellikkal Thomas and Sheela Thomas. His siblings are Tingston Thomas and Dhanya Thomas. He completed primary schooling from Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Irinjalakuda[6][7] and Secondary (Plus Two) schooling from St Mary's Higher Secondary School Irinjalakuda and graduated with bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from Tamil Nadu College of Engineering, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He was a part of the handball Team of Don Bosco High School and also helmed as the school leader.[8] He later worked in Cognizant Technologies[7] as a software engineer. He was active in sports, fitness and modeling.[9]

Career

Tovino Thomas made his acting debut in Prabhuvinte Makkal directed by Sajeev Anthikkad in 2012.[10] Subsequently, he worked as an assistant director in Roopesh Peethambaran's Theevram. In ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi (2013) he portrayed the role of the antagonist. Tovino appeared as the lead in the film Koothara which also featured Mohanlal.[11] He played a lead role in Roopesh Peethambaran's second directorial venture You Too Brutus.[12]

He has played major roles in the films including 7th Day (2014) and Charlie (2015). In 2015, he portrayed the role of Perumparambil Appu in the film Ennu Ninte Moideen which was widely appreciated and received critical acclaim for his performance. He won his first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ennu Ninte Moideen.[13]

He played the role of Engineer Thejus Varky in Guppy (2016) which was well received by audiences upon the DVD and digital release.[14] He won the New Sensational Hero Award at the NAFA 2017 for his performance in the film.[15] This film was also a breakthrough in his career.

He played the lead role in Oru Mexican Aparatha, Godha, and Mayanadi in 2017. He won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor and Behindwoods Critics Award for Best Actor for Mayanadi.[16][17] The film was praised for the way it tackled with sexuality and was included in The Hindu's top 25 Malayalam films of the decade.[18] The same year he appeared in Ezra in a major supporting role.

In 2018, Tovino Thomas was cast in a major role in Maari 2 with Dhanush which was his Tamil debut.[19] His major Malayalam releases for the year includes Theevandi, Ente Ummante Peru, and Oru Kuprasidha Payyan. Tovino had major roles in Lucifer, Uyare and Virus in 2019. His film Uyare was released in South Korea, becoming the first Malayalam film to do so.[20] His other releases in the year were And the Oscar Goes To..., Luca, Kalki, and Edakkad Battalion 06.

In 2020, he played the lead role in the crime thriller Forensic with Mamta Mohandas, which received a good response from the audience and was a major box office success.[21]

In 2021, his first release was Kala which was his second venture as a producer. The film received critical acclaim for its narrative.[22] Kaanekkaane released in 2021, received a positive response and critical acclaim for its narrative and performance by its cast.[23] He starred as the titular character in Minnal Murali, which is the first Malayalam superhero action film, released by Netflix on December 24. He received immense praise for his work in the movie and the movie was also declared as 'Streaming success'[24] and surpassed the records of most viewed Malayalam Film on OTT previously held by Drishyam 2.[25]

In 2022, Tovino appeared in Naaradan, Dear Friend, Vaashi and Thallumaala.

In his upcoming film Neelavelicham he portrays the role of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer. The actor have a good social media management and web development team to update his movie details instantly.[26]

Filmography

• All films are in Malayalam language unless otherwise noted.

Actor

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Prabhuvinte Makkal	Che Guevara Sudheendran
2013	ABCD	Akhilesh Varma
	August Club	Mahesh
2014	7th Day	Eby Ebineser
	Koothara	Tharun
2015	You Too Brutus	Tovino
	Onnam Loka Mahayudham	Jacob
	Ennu Ninte Moideen	Perumpparambil Appu
	Charlie	Georgy
2016	Monsoon Mangoes	Sanjay
	2 Penkuttikal	Sanju
	Style	Edgar and Fletre Kelly
	Guppy	Engineer Thejus Varkey
2017	Ezra	Shafeer Ahammed
	Oru Mexican Aparatha	Paul and Kochaniyan
	Godha	Anjaneya Das aka Dasan
	Tharangam	G. Padmanabhan Pillai
	Mayanadhi	Mathews aka Mathan
2018	Aami	Lord Krishna
	Naam	himself	Cameo appearance
	Abhiyude Katha Anuvinteyum	Abhimanyu / Abhi	Simultaneously shot in Tamil as Abhiyum Anuvum
	Maradona	Maradona
	Theevandi	Bineesh Damodaran
	Oru Kuprasidha Payyan	Ajayan
	Ente Ummante Peru	Hameed and his stepbrother
	Maari 2	Gangadhar Beeja aka Thanatos	Tamil film
2019	Lucifer	Jathin Ramdas
	Uyare	Vishal Rajashekharan
	Virus	Paul K Abraham
	And the Oscar Goes To...	Issak Ebrahem
	Luca	Luca
	Kalki	K/Kalki
	Edakkad Battalion 06	Shafeeque Mohammad
2020	Forensic	Samuel John Kattookkaran
	Kilometers and Kilometers	Josemon	Netflix film
2021	Kala	Shaji
	Kaanekkaane	Alan	Sony LIV film
	Kurup	Charlie	Cameo appearance
	Minnal Murali	Jaison Varghese / Minnal Murali and Martin Rangakala	Dual role;Netflix film
2022	Naaradan	Chandraprakash
	Dear Friend	Vinod
	Vaashi	Ebin Mathew	[27]
	Thallumaala	Manavalan Waseem
TBA	Neelavelicham	Vaikom Muhammad Basheer	Filming
TBA	Identity

Singer

Producer

Tovino has co-produced the film Kilometers and Kilometers. On 21 January 2021, he launched his own production house - Tovino Thomas Productions.[28] Kala is the first venture by his own production house where he also played the role of the antagonist.[29]

Awards and nominations

Personal life

Tovino married his longtime girlfriend, Lidiya at St. Thomas Cathedral, Irinjalakuda, on 25 October 2014. The duo had met during their school days and married after nine years[52] The couple has a daughter and a son born in 2016 and 2020 respectively.[53][54]

Tovino had volunteered during 2018 Kerala floods to lead rescue and rehabilitation missions. In 2021, Tovino received golden visa from Government of UAE[55]

Initiatives

Tovino Thomas was a part of the handball team at Don Bosco High School, Irinjalakuda during his high school years. As a part of the team, he has participated in junior and sub-junior levels. He was also the team captain at Don Bosco High School, Irinjalakuda.[56] Tovino had also competed at district and state levels representing Thrissur during his years when he was active at handball.[57]

Currently, Tovino is active alongside former members of the team to develop the sport in Kerala and is honored as the goodwill ambassador by Kerala Handball Association.

In 2021, Tovino is announced as the ambassador of the Samoohika Sannadhasena,[58] the community volunteer program launched by the Government of Kerala. The community volunteer program was launched to tackle natural disasters by imparting training to volunteers and provide aid to the public in times of crisis. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala appreciated Tovino's involvement in flood relief activities and noted that his presence will influence the youth to join in the community volunteer program.[59]

After Mammootty and Mohanlal, Tovino became the third Malayalam film actor to receive the Golden Visa issued by the United Arab Emirates.[60]

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tovino Thomas.

• Official website
• Tovino Thomas at IMDb
• Tovino Thomas on Telegram Movies & Music Bot